Yellow-billed cuckoo Photo Credit: Mark Dettling/Point Blue Conservation Science

yellow-billed cuckoo

Photo Credit: Mark Dettling/Point Blue Conservation Science

Photo Credit: Murrelet Halterman

yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) • Neotropical migrant

• Family Cuculidae • Winter in South America

• Breed in North America

• Relatively common in eastern North America

• Very few small populations in western North America

Photo Credit: Mark Dettling / Point Blue Conservation Science

Threats

• Loss of riparian habitat

(alteration of watercourse hydrology)

• Degradation of riparian habitat

(livestock overgrazing,

encroachment from agriculture,

invasive plants,

fragmentation,

loss of prey due to pesticide use)

Population decline and listing

• Historically bred throughout western North America from southern British Columbia to northwestern Mexico

• Populations have declined dramatically since the mid-1800s

• Breeding cuckoos have been extirpated over much of the westernrange, including British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington

• Debate on whether western cuckoos are a subspecies

• Western distinct population segment was listed as threatened in 2014


Expect revisedproposedcritical habitat rule later this year


Identification

• Bill stout, slightly curved, yellow bottom• Slender, elongated body and long tail• Yellow eye ring (adults)• Plumage gray brown above, white below• Reddish primary flight feathers• Black and white pattern on bottom of tail • Tail rounded• About 12 inches in length• About 2 ounces (60 grams) in weight • Legs are short and bluish-gray• Zygodactyl foot

Photo Credit: Sally Brown / USFWS

Breeding Habitat

• Large tracts of willow-cottonwood or mesquite forest or woodland • Rarely nest at sites less than 50 acres • Prefer sites close to other occupied sites• Prefer patches containing young (~20 foot tall) riparian • Low gradient (surface slope less than 3%) rivers and streams• Open valleys, wide floodplains (greater than 325 feet)• From sea level to 7,000 feet in elevation

Breeding Habitat

• 10-17 acre core use area within larger 50-75 acre general home range

• Require plentiful large food items (e.g., cicadas, caterpillars, katydids, lizards, frogs)

• Opportunistic use of less optimal habitat based on high food availability

• Will breed in young restoration sites (~3 years)

Photo Credit: Sally Brown / USFWS


Breeding• In west typically mid-June to late July

rarely beginning as early as late May may continue into early Sept

• Biparental care • Small clutch size

avg 2 eggs / nest, occasionally up to 4• Some year-to-year site fidelity• Nest is small platform of twigs in a tree fork tough to spot, looks like a pile of detritus• Nest is always in an area with high canopy

cover above and around it• Adults are quiet, secretive around nest• Eggs are blue

Photo Credit: Steve Laymon

Breeding – Nest Abandonment• YBC will abandon nest if disturbed

• YBC will never return to its nest if it sees you and you are still thereeven if you sit down and are quiet if a YBC sees you, leave

• Signs you are disturbing a nesting YBC:Repeated soft knocking callsAdult flies by with food, eats itBroken wing display


Rapid Breeding Cycle• Both adults build nest in 0.5 to 2 days

• Egg laying begins on day 0-2one egg every 24-48 hours until clutch Is complete

• Incubation begins as soon as first egg has been laid and is continual

• Female does most daytime incubation male does nighttime incubation

• No cowbird parasitism observed (nest is not left unattended)


Rapid Breeding Cycle• Eggs hatch after 11 days

• Each baby gets ~ 10 huge food items / day

• Young leave nest at 5 to 7 days (branching, not flying)

• At 10 days young are gliding

• At 14 days young are flying (not well)

• Fledglings fed by adults for 2-3 weeks

• At 1 month, young are almost indistinguishable from adults

• Adults have yellow eye ring that is difficult to see in the field

Vocalizations• Vocalize infrequently (~1 call / hour)

• Low response rate to call playback

• Coo call

• Contact calls

• Alarm calls

• Soft calls around the nestSpecies with similar sounding calls yellow-breasted chat, greater roadrunnerpied-billed grebe, green heron, mourning dove, woodpeckers, accipitershttp://www.xeno-canto.org

Photo Credit: Murrelet Halterman

Survey Methodology

• YBC are secretive and hard to detect

• 10(a)(1)(A) recovery permit required for protocol surveys

• Very few people are permitted at this time

• We are working with applicants to get them qualified

• Next field season there should be a larger number of qualified survey biologists

• Draft survey protocol is available but is subject to change

• Final survey protocol should be available prior to next field season


Survey Methodology - Brief Summary

• Survey using call playback

• Survey each route 4 times mid June to mid August minimum 12 days, maximum 15 days between surveys

• Make stops at 100 meters

• Play contact calls 5 times at 1 minute intervals

• When a cuckoo is detected, record data, move 300 meters, resume survey

• YBC surveys not conducted at the same time as other surveys(LBV, SWWF)


Draft Survey Protocol 95% probability of detecting cuckoos if present

Halterman, M.D., M.J. Johnson, J.A. Holmes and S.A. Laymon. 2015. A Natural History Summary and Survey Protocol for the Western Distinct Population Segment of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Techniques and Methods, 45 p.

Questions?

Photo Credit: Mark Dettling/Point Blue Conservation Science

Documents

Yellow-billed cuckoo Photo Credit: Mark Dettling/Point Blue Conservation Science